Happiness of giving to society unmatched: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Monday called upon the corporate honchos to inculcate the spirit of service as the happiness they get from giving back to society will be unmatched.

Addressing the CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, the founder of the Art of Living told investors and businessmen that investing in society for a cause would give them more satisfaction than earning more returns on investment.

At a session along with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu, he shared his views on a wide range of issues, giving useful tips to delegates from India and abroad on how to manage and live a happy and satisfied life.

He said that all successful businessmen in the world are giving back to society as they finally realised that this gives them satisfaction.

Ravi Shankar said that though there is a law that 2-3 per cent of the profit should be spent on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the corporates should go beyond this to spend 4-5 per cent. He said this will also increase the buying power of people and bring them out of poverty. "Seva is also an indirect form of investment as it also helps society," he said.

He said the purpose of wealth should be to create wellness and welfare in society. "What is the use of wealth which creates more problems and more diseases. We create wealth, struggle with our health and then try to regain the health by spending part of our wealth. That is not good economics," he said.

Stating that health is not a mere absence of disease but the vibrancy of consciousness, he said how happy, strong and committed one feels depends on the state of consciousness.

Ravi Shankar stressed the need for investing in oneself. He said, "Keep moments for yourself. Spend time with nature. This will shift the context of thinking. If you can't feel, meditate, walk into a planetarium, you will realise how insignificant your life is when compared to the universe."

He called for attending to the happiness factor, saying this is central to any development and can solve all the problems in an organisation and in society at large.

The spiritual leader said while it was a human instinct to want immediate results and technology was enabling this, without patience even technology will not yield results.

"Impatient people can't achieve anything. Even if they achieve they can't enjoy," he said describing impatience a sign of stress and mistrust. He believes that impatience is causing social disasters like riots and wars.

"Impatient people catch on to rumours faster than facts," he said. He said that spiritualism brings patience, perseverance and intuitive ability.

On people being addicted to mobile phones, he stressed the need for judicious use of technology. "Technology is not to be blamed. It's our attitude. The purpose of technology is to give us comfort. We should not make it a noose around our neck," he said.

Ravi Shankar urged people to move away from the virtual world to the real world. "I often advise children who play with video games to go out and play with real kids," he said.

He also observed that education is more of information than interaction and said human interaction was essential.

Chandrababu Naidu said the poor were happier than the rich people and this proves that wealth can't guarantee happiness and satisfaction. He called for keeping family values, traditions and culture intact while creating wealth and using technology.

--IANS

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